THE MAN OF THE FUTURE. 301 



We agree with this in so far that, as a rule, the 

 reduction of the dentition where the disappearance 

 does not affect the whole set of teeth can be brought 

 into connection with the idea of progress, and many 

 proofs of this have been given in the course of our 

 discussion. Still this higher faculty of resistance 

 and of acquiring food is not necessarily accom- 

 panied by an increase in the power of the adapta- 

 bility and a perfecting of the intellectual faculties. 

 In the Cat we have a more powerful, and hence a 

 higher development of the nature of the rapacious 

 animal than in the Dog, with its more old-fashioned 

 form of dentition. Yet who would think of placing 

 Cats as intellectually higher than Dogs ? It is 

 the same with the prospects of the human races. 

 Modifications in the human dentition are sure to 

 take place, as surely as man cannot rid himself of 

 his animal ancestors, even though they may be felt 

 to be inconvenient. But progress in the intellectual 

 and moral domain and here our well-founded 

 idealism steps in is not dependent upon the 

 possession or the loss of our wisdom teeth. The 

 correlation is not wanting, but it makes itself felt 

 in an opposite direction. The man who is engaged 

 in making inventions and in scientific pursuits, and 

 is advancing and encouraging all the nobler and 



